Peter Sagan wins stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) has won a shortened third stage of the Tour de Suisse, sprinting to victory in Olivone ahead of Dani Moreno (Katusha) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr).

Monday’s stage was shortened by more than 50km due to bad weather on Gotthard Pass forcing organisers to move the start of the race from Brunnen to Quinto.

A three-rider breakaway made the early running — Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling), Marco Marcato (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), and Branislau Samoilau (CCC Sprandi-Polkowice) — getting six minutes clear at one stage before Tinkoff-Saxo and Giant-Alpecin led the chase.

With the break caught several riders attempted to get clear but Tinkoff-Saxo again chased hard to set Sagan up for the final sprint.

Tom Dumoulin finished fifth on the stage and continues to lead the race ahead of today’s fourth stage of the nine-stage race; a 193.2km jaunt that is likely to finish in a bunch kick.

Froome after Dauphine win: ‘I’m not quite at my best’

Chris Froome (Sky) might have won the Criterium du Dauphine with two stage wins to close out the race, but the Briton has told the press he still has room to improve before the Tour de France.

“If I have to be honest, I’d say I’m not quite at my best,” Froome said. “I still have a lot of work to do between now and the Tour de France, that’s one of the reasons we are here, to test and to see where we are at. I’m happy with where I’m at, it’s a good place to be at this time of season.”

“Arriving to my best form for the third week of the Tour? If we could have it exactly how we want it, that would be the best scenario,” Froome said.

“We just have to get through the first week first and then see where we are at. I don’t expect all the GC guys to make it through the first week without any big … You look at any grand tour … At the Vuelta a España last year, Quintana dropped out, at the Tour last year, myself and Alberto dropped out, the Giro d’Italia this year, Richie [Porte] dropped out … Every grand tour, one, if not more, of the big contenders are going to drop out.”

“I’m exactly where I need to be. We have under three weeks to the Tour now, I still have one or two little things to touch on in term of preparation. Things are looking good.”

Nairo Quintana in good shape ahead of Le Tour

While Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali are likely to head back to Tenerife for more altitude training before the Tour de France, the other big contender, Nairo Quintana, doesn’t need to take such measures. Quintana lives at nearly 3,000m of altitude; something he views as being in his favour ahead of the Tour de France.

“That’s the advantage that we Colombians have; we are already at altitude, so we do not have to spend even more time away from our family and friends, who already make many sacrifices for us during the year,” Quintana said during a press conference in Bogotá. “I know the work I have to do, and I am serious about my training. We have good roads around my home, so why go someplace else? One is always more comfortable when one is at home.”

“I am in good shape and at a very good weight right now,” Quintana said. “I know with the training and work I’ve done all year that I will be able to go to the Tour with confidence.”

While the Colombian media is excited about the prospect of Quintana winning the Tour, Quintana himself is mindful of his opposition.

“We should remember that Contador has won three Tours, Nibali has won three grand tours, and Froome has also won a Tour, so compared to them, I am the one who’s won the least,” Quintana said.

Van Garderen likes his chances in Tour de France

For Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) last week’s Criterium du Dauphine was a case of ‘close but no cigar’, but the American is confident of a good showing at the Tour de France.

“Every race you go to you want to shoot for the top,” Van Garderen said in a BMC release. “I am certainly happy with second place and I am really happy with how I am stacking up to all of my Tour rivals. I think it is a good sign for July. Right now it is hurting a little bit, but sometimes that is a good thing.”

“I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, to be honest. It was quite hard. Froome played it tactically pretty well. He knows that I’m better keeping the rhythm, so he attacked me at the perfect moment,” van Garderen said Sunday, after losing the overall lead to Froome. “For a little bit that gap was just agonizing that close. I was trying to hold on, but when you give Froome five meters, it’s hard to pull back.”

Kittel’s prospects looking better for Tour de France?

by Shane Stokes

Marcel Kittel has had a frustrating and illness-plagued season in 2015 and his participation in the Tour de France is not still assured. But the German sprinter wrote on his personal website the other day that his form is heading in the right direction.

“The additional mountain training in the Sierra Nevada the last three weeks sure made itself noticed,” said Kittel, writing about how his training helped him to sixth at the Rund um Koln — fastest in the peloton. “Only at the beginning of the race did I not have good legs. That was surely due to the long trip and after all, my body has to get used to it again.

“By the way, my sprint values were very good again. I am on the best way back to my old strength. And I could even work on my climbing form – yes, even sprinters have that ;-) – even though some of my teammates, especially Warren Barguil, set a very high standard. But I did fairly well and as I said, could feel the first effects today.”

Kittel will now race the five-day Ster ZLM Toer which will paint a clearer picture of his form ahead of the Tour de France.

Phinney: Flying a plane for me is a huge rush

by Shane Stokes

Currently still working on his recovery and trying to get back to the level of fitness that will enable him to return to racing, Taylor Phinney has drawn on a couple of non-sporting areas in his time away from competition.

One of those is painting, a passion he picked up from his mother, the Olympic gold medallist Connie Carpenter Phinney (see lululemon video below). The second is flying, something he has done plenty of in the many months since he crashed hard and sustained leg fractures in May 2014.

The latter has helped the young American greatly during what has been a frustrating time for him, giving him a different focus since his crash.

“For me, it was more the case that I had to consider what my life would be like if I wasn’t able to ride my bike again,” Phinney told CyclingTips recently. “So I wanted to try to find something that I was inspired by as much as racing a bike. Flying a plane is for me a huge rush. There is a lot that goes into it. It is very similar to riding a bike, actually, but just on a much larger, more grandiose scale.

“And then there are a lot of correlations between plotting your route, understanding maps, understanding landmarks and being able to figure locations out…that too is very similar to riding a bike. It’s something I long liked about training – looking at local maps, checking out new roads, exploring. There are similarities with flying.”

British cyclist breaks collarbone after hitting tripwire

A 49-year-old cyclist in England has suffered a broken collarbone after hitting a ‘tripwire’ strung across a bike path and crashing to the ground.

“You’re talking about a thin wire, there’s nothing else to see – that’s the worrying thing,” the cyclist involved, Darren Gibson, said. “I was with my brother and a friend and I was going very fast and suddenly felt my foot being dragged. I knew I was coming off so I went into a roll as I went over the handlebars and landing on my shoulder.

“There was a very large fence post with wire attached which had been dragged from one side of the path to the other so the wire was about two feet in the air. I’ve broken my collarbone, I’ve got bruised ribs, and my shoulder joints have been smashed about.”

The incident is the third time in recent months that a cyclist has hit a tripwire in the area. Local police are investigating.

Diamond Tour podium controversy rolls on

If you’re a Twitter user you’ve probably been following the controversy about the podium presentation at the Flanders Diamond Tour over the weekend. Here’s the tweet that started the discussion, from pro rider Marijn de Vries:

And while the Diamond Tour has been getting attention for all the wrong reasons, let’s also remember that there was a bike race that preceded this podium presentation; a race that was won by Belgian national champion Jolien d’Hoore for the second year running. You can read a full report from the race over at our sister site, Ella CyclingTips.

Hit-and-run on cyclists caught on camera

– #CowardsRun on Morrison Rd, Midland – near Perth in WA on Saturday just past.View is from 2 cameras. The riders on 1st and 2nd wheel filming from Fly6 cameras.**** DO NOT WATCH IF SQUEAMISH ****What we know is that the car was caught up at the next lights, registration plate was collected and the police have been notified. This will be going to court.BUT – More importantly the riders are OK, cuts, bruises and a little missing bark, but they are fine.This is a horrible crime, a Hit'n'Run is a most disgusting way to treat another human being. If you hurt someone, you own your error, you ensure everyone is OK and you deal with it.

Why do we spell and say Milan instead of Milano? And do you say ‘paree’ for Paris? Probably not. And what about Le Mans? Do you say Le Mon? Better to Anglicize than to mumble apologetically, IMHO.

Holby City

I think you can still Anglicize but make an effort. Champs Elysee with a P is just cringe-worthy.

Simon

OT but I sympathise with your intentions as Aussies are very lazy ime with their attempts at proper pronunciation. Speak with any post war migrant about the names they were given because hardly anyone made an effort to pronounce their given name. (There is no sweeter sound to a person’s ear than the sound of their own name.)

CapeHorn

You might be right, but you might not be.
I have a fairly common name, biblical in origin, and yet it seems that most people cannot spell it. Indeed, someone decided to be ‘helpful’ at work, and ‘corrected’ the spelling of my name in our internal systems. (“But you name is spelt this way, you must be wrong” – said to my face…) It seems that the only way to have this corrected is by leaving and coming back to a different position.
We can try to educate, or you can just try not to let it bother you. I chose the second option.

Dave

Anglicise only where there is actually a recognised Anglicised version.

Paris, Milan – good.

ChomPs Elleesay – bad.

Holby City

The pitfalls of autocorrect. Thanks for the rather ironic correction :-)

Mate.

Yeah, and people (aussies) should learn how to pronounce keirin too. It’s bloody KAY-RIN.

John_Irvine

Nice to see Sky have joined EQS in the caps, not hats movement. Froome could still work on his luft, though.

velocite

Obviously the hit and run driver should be hit with a substantial penalty/punishment, both for the hit and for the run. But this video draws attention quite well to something else. Sharing the road is a principle not just for cars. Although riding two abreast is perfectly legal in Victoria I avoid it in cases where it would hold up the traffic, which includes busy two lane roads like the one in this video. I am very much in favour of the 1/1.5m clearance rule for cars because it provides a clear guideline for car drivers on how to share the road. I don’t know a neat way of expressing the rule ‘two abreast is fine except when to do so would block the traffic, and if such a situation arises while you are two abreast you have 20″ to revert to single file’, but I believe that should be the rule.

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